While building my layout I need to have a grade crossing over a turnout in order to have a siding at a certain place. Obviously the road can't cross over the point rails, so are there real-life examples of streets (in this case a fairly major street, not say a service road) that cross over the guardrail/frog areas? What do they look like? If someone can post any pictures, I would appreciate it.
I know that in places like piers/harbors there are turnouts that are entirely paved over, but in this case there would be a rubber or concrete grade crossing over it.
In Columbiana OH there is a spur that comes off the PRR - er, NS main and runs pretty much down the center of the street (Railroad St - Go Figger). It has a switch in middle of the westbound lane. I don't have a photo, unfortunately, but whole shebang was in the street, with a rectangular metal box over the switch mechanism.
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=40.884561~-80.699113&style=a&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1796323&rtp=null~null
In this view I think it's to the right of the diagonal road, leading into the black-roofed, L-shaped factory. Unfortunately this town has not been mapped at highest resolution. I think there some in New Castle/Mahoningtown PA as well.
KL
Obviously city trolley systems did this all the time "back in the day." In Phoenix AZ years ago I saw a siding in the road -- must have been a rough crossing in a car. As Kurt mentions, the turnout throw was depressed into the street, covered by a hinged sheet of steel (strong and thick enough that cars could drive over it), so the crews would open the hinged door, throw the turnout, and close the hinged steel door again.
In Rockford IL there is an interesting siding where the points are to the south of the road, then the siding runs exactly even with the main sort of like a gantlet track, and then the frog is to the north of the road for a siding into a scrap metal dealer. Obviously this would all have to be handlaid on a model.
Dave Nelson
Where I grew up 1950s and early 60s in Houston, there was a remotely controlled turnout on 65th Street about 100 feet from my bedroom.
I believe the frog just barely missed the street, and what would be the diverging rails of a model rr turnout were paved over. I will try to find a picture...
In my planned island seaport cargo shed scene, I plan to run grade crossings over the non-moving portion of turnout, in order to squeeze a vehicle access into cargo shed without losing already limited siding space.
Found- my photo of street grade crossing built over a turnout. This is neither a major thoroughfare nor a "service road" but somewhere in between... a neighborhood "collector street" that connects residential streets--- 65th Street at Avenue B (not really an "avenue" but a divided alley that runs on either side of a local railroad track) in Houston, Texas.
Notice, the movable points are just to the LEFT of the paved street crossing in the bottom photo. In the top photo, it appears the frog is just to RIGHT of the paved portion of street. Prototype turnouts, even in long-speed congested areas, are LOOOOONNNGGG, compared to our model turnouts!
The railroad was built straight through across this point (no turnout) in the 1890s as a short line with steam dummy passenger service from downtown Houston to a park area east of the city proper on Buffalo Bayou where a deep water port was proposed. I believe the line was called Houston and Magnolia Park. About 1910, the subdivision of Central Park was laid out and the 65th Street railroad crossing built. Shortly afterward, Houston Belt and Terminal built a north-south line called the "East Belt" about 3 miles east of downtown Houston and one block west of 65th Street. Oh yes, the deep-water Port of Houston opened, and the little short line to Magnolia Park picnic grounds became a switching line to the port. By 1926, Missouri Pacific owned the Magnolia line, but it was operated as a part of Houston Belt and Terminal, of which MoPac was a part owner.
About 1948, when I was in kindergarten, I watched construction of a connection between the East Belt and the Magnolia line, at the northeast quadrant of the East Bent-Magnolia crossing. A switch was cut into the Magnolia line at the 65th Street crossing, some 100 feet from my bedroom window. Some five years later, another connection curve was made at the southeast quadrant, forming a wye. Sometime in the 1970s or so, the East Belt was doubled tracked. About 1980 or so, the Magnolia line was abandoned from downtown to East Belt, and the crossing removed, but the wye remained, connecting to the line to the south side of the Port of Houston.
In April 2006 when I took these pictures, Magnolia Jct wye was being relaid with prefab track on concrete ties. Looks like they plan on keeping it.
See my map of the area in my earlier post above.
Through a miscalculation, I ended up with a city street that was going right over the points of a turnout. Rather than move the turnout, I put a bend in the street and ran it to the front of the benchwork on a slight angle. It actually added a little more visual interest than if I had a straight street running through the scene. I turned a negative into a positive. I don't know if this is an option in your situation but something to consider.
I don't know if it would be of any help but I know a few years ago Walthers offered a street kit that had styrene pieces made to fit a code 83 turnout (I don't know which frog numbers) but these pieces were already made to match the Walther's Street system.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3140
ED
gmpullman wrote:I don't know if it would be of any help but I know a few years ago Walthers offered a street kit that had styrene pieces made to fit a code 83 turnout (I don't know which frog numbers) but these pieces were already made to match the Walther's Street system.http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3140ED
Thanks, I'm aware of that, but...I'm in N scale :)
Although I can't remember where, I've seen several switches layed in the middle of a regular street, where even the frog was in the lanes. You can put the movable points in a roadway with no problem. In the switches I saw there were specially formed metal blocks that were placed in the center of the points. They blocks fit in such a way that however the points were set, the point that is open rests against the metal block, and the point that is closed has a gap that's only the width of a flangeway. Frogs could also be put in the roadway without too much of a problem. A special frog was used that had slightly tighter clearances than normal switch frogs to reduce the gap in the center.
On some switches that were used frequently, the throwing stand would be placed off to the side of the road way, and connected to the switch by a link lever action dug in a trench under the road and covered over. Nowadays they use electric switches which are simpler and take up less space.
I hope you find that usefull. Wish I had some pictures!Matthew Imbrogno-Mechanical Vollenteer, Arizona Railway Museumwww.azrymuseum.org